We’re starting a weekly series of author interviews with our first interview being today! Today we are learning about Richard Godwin. Richard is the critically acclaimed author of Apostle Rising, Mr. Glamour, One Lost Summer, Noir City, Meaningful Conversations, Confessions Of A Hit Man, Paranoia And The Destiny Programme, Wrong Crowd, Savage Highway, Ersatz World, The Pure And The Hated, Disembodied, Buffalo And Sour Mash, and Locked In Cages. His stories have been published in numerous magazines and over 34 anthologies. Richard was born in London and lectured in English and American literature at the University of London.

1) What made you start writing? Were there any particular books/events/people that inspired you to start writing?

Reading Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Kafka’s The Trial as well as Carl Jung’s Archetypes as a teenager switched me onto the world of the narrative and psychoanalysis. I knew then I wanted to be a writer, and so I started. Crime and Punishment is a seminal work of the greatest literature as well as crime fiction, Dostoevsky writes at greater psychological depth than anyone. Kafka’s work is sheer prophesy. Jung explained a lot about the mind. I was in touch with what I call the Grand Narrative. We all inhabit a story, we can make our own as well. Dickens was also key, for his style and characterization, and later Graham Greene, and James Lee Burke more recently. For drama Shakespeare, the greatest writer who ever lived, and Ben Jonson. Poetry, TS Eliot and Robert Lowell.

2) What advice do you have for new/aspiring writers?

Read as much as you can and learn from it. Write every day.

3) What drew you to your genres?

A liking for exploring what makes men and women who are not necessarily recidivists commit a crime, what makes them morally compromised.

Richard’s advice to new/aspiring writers is definitely a big secret. You only get better at writing by reading the works of others so that you can learn from their styles and by actually writing every day to hone your craft. Thanks for the interview, Richard!

You can learn more about Richard on his website: http://www.richardgodwin.net/